The math of being an independent musician

Transcribed:

Let’s talk about the math of being an independent musician for a second.

How much is it to professionally record a song?

Based on my experience in NYC, a song is going to cost you about $1,000 to $3,000. So if you’re recording an album of let’s say, 10 songs, that’s going to cost you $10,000 to $30,000.

And that’s not including the artwork, the photography, the promotion.

Why does it cost so much?

Well for the recording, it involves a lot of people, and the space itself, the studio. There’s the sound engineer, the producer, the musicians, the people who are mixing and mastering your track to make it sound good for people to play it on their devices.

How much do you end up earning from these songs?

The vast majority of people no longer buy CDs or digital albums. So let’s take Spotify for an example. For one stream on Spotify, the artist will earn about $0.004. That means for an artist that’s kind of up and coming, doing pretty well, getting a million streams on their song — they’re earning $4,000. So fro all that work, all the recording costs, they get $4000.

That’s why independent musicians like me have to get creative if they want to make music a self-sustaining endeavor, which is why I’m starting a Patreon.